What They Want
Give the customer what they want, and BE NICE about it. As I stood in line at the local coffee shop and heard the rude comments of the gal behind the counter – because she got the order wrong – I watched the customer feeling awkward like they did something wrong. Got me thinking – what is true customer service for us in real estate? It is giving the customer what they want because they are the boss. The key to true success in this business is knowing what the customer wants and giving it to them. According to NAR’s 2007 Profile of Homebuyers and Homesellers, 34% of consumers found the ACTUAL home they purchased online. That means they researched online and filtered through many homes, neighborhoods, got down to the home they were interested in and by looking at photos, comments on the listing and the multimedia fell in love with the house. They then called or emailed a REALTOR(r) and BOUGHT IT!
Ways to Deliver
So three easy ways to deliver extreme customer service – give them what they want. Start with photos, LOTS of them. make sure they flow the way you would walk through the home, from the exterior to the inside. Include a floor plan if you have one. If the consumer likes the neighborhood, and is satisfied with the size of the home, they are more likely to want to see the inside. A floor plan can help accomplish that. Once they get inside it is up to the seller to make sure there is no clutter, it is clean and smells good. Maybe even staged a little?
Point2 Technology and my friend Roger Noujeim sends me statistics time to time form their website. They found that the number of clicks on properties and amount of leads increased in proportion to the number of photos. “A new study by Point2 Technologies Inc.,… tested how the inclusion of photos with online listings affects real estate sales. By tracking consumer views, interest and leads, the study concludes that more photos generate increased consumer interest. Listings that feature no photos generate 0.02 percent of the page views that listings featuring 21 to 36 photos attract.
Listings with 21 or more photos generate more than 55 times the number of page views, 27 times the amount of interest and 898 times the number of leads compared to listings featuring no photos.”
Ad Copy?
Many of were traumatized by being only able to write 14 words to advertise our properties in the local newspaper. I am thankful those days are over . . . forever. SO, change your ad copy from 3br, 2 ba with fr and eik. Add some information about what makes living there special. Then there is multimedia. Virtual tours that tell specific features about the house are helpful because they can be send form the website virally. I like to add voice to a virtual tour. For me that is where the selling really starts. Here is a link to an article called Video is mainstream, is it on your website? Enjoy
